Episode 390: Why Your Cold Outreach Isn't Working (And It's Not the List)
Acting Business Boot Camp
Let me start with a number. 400. That's approximately how many cold emails I used to send per month at one point in my career. 400 a month. Roughly 13 emails a day, every day, to production companies, creative agencies, brand managers, you name it. Want to guess what my booking rate was? Zero. For months it was actual zero. And here's the thing. My list was good. I did my research. These were real companies, real decision-makers, real email addresses. My audio was solid. My website wasn't embarrassing. On paper I was doing everything right. And I had nothing to show for it. So today...
info_outline
Episode 389: The Actors' Time Management Problem
Acting Business Boot Camp
After 30 years of coaching, I can tell you the number one thing that determines whether you're going to work in this industry or not work in this industry. It's not talent. It's not training. It's not who you know. It's your time management. Because time is something we all have. The question is are you going to take advantage of the time you have, or are you going to be like 95% of the other actors out there and not take advantage of it? What "Working On Your Career" Actually Looks Like Some actors tell me they're working on their career every day. And when I actually look at what...
info_outline
Episode 388: Actor Tools of the Trade
Acting Business Boot Camp
The Business Tools That Actually Keep Your VO Career Running One of the biggest misconceptions in voiceover is that success comes from talent plus a good booth. And yes, performance matters. Audio quality matters. But what actually creates consistency in this career is operational support. It's the systems you build that allow you to track opportunities, manage relationships, understand your income, organize your marketing, and reduce decision fatigue. Because decision fatigue is real, and it will stop you in your tracks and you will end up doing nothing. So today I want to walk you...
info_outline
Episode 387: Why Talented Actors Stay Invisible
Acting Business Boot Camp
There are so many incredibly talented actors out there. And so many of them do not get seen. Meanwhile there are actors with less training booking roles more regularly. And if you are one of those highly trained actors, that is so freaking frustrating. It brings up all the not so helpful questions. Am I not good enough? Why am I not getting these opportunities? Insert your favorite self-doubt here. But here's the truth. Talent alone does not guarantee visibility. I know this as a casting director. I also know this as an actor. Talent Is Only One Piece of the Puzzle Acting is an art. Just...
info_outline
Episode 386: Micro Habits To Keep You a Professional Voiceover Actor
Acting Business Boot Camp
The Stuff Nobody Puts in Their Instagram Carousel Everybody wants to talk about the big wins in voiceover. The national spot. The animation series. The dream agent. The viral audition story. But there are operational realities that actually determine whether you stay in this business long term, and those don't make it into anyone's Instagram carousel. These are the things that quietly make or break your career. Because voiceover is not just a performance career. It is a business, a micro business, and it runs on detail. Your EIN. Get One. Today. Most actors I talk to don't even know what...
info_outline
Episode 385: The Art of Consistency
Acting Business Boot Camp
There's a version of an acting career that looks like a highlight reel. Big auditions. Exciting callbacks. The moment everything clicks. Most working actors don't live there. They live in the Tuesday morning version. The one where nobody's calling, there's no audition on the calendar, and showing up anyway is the whole job. That's where I want to talk to you today. It doesn't start with a booking After 30 years as a working actor, I can tell you with real certainty: the career didn't come from the bookings. It came from who I decided to be on the days when absolutely nobody was...
info_outline
Episode 284: Practice Builds Familiarity and That's Your Superpower
Acting Business Boot Camp
Here's a myth that floats around the voiceover world. Once you have a demo, a decent mic, and a couple bookings, you can kind of coast. I want to dismantle that right now. Voice acting is a motor skill, an interpretive skill, and a business skill. And all three degrade without repetition. Athletes don't stop training after a good game. Musicians don't stop running scales after a sold out show. Your instrument works the same way. Without regular contact, reads become stiff, choices become generic, tension creeps into your jaw and neck, and your instincts start to feel shaky. That's not a...
info_outline
Episode 383: How To Motivate Yourself To Change Your Behavior
Acting Business Boot Camp
I came across a Ted Talk by cognitive neuroscientist Tali Sharot about how to motivate yourself to change your behavior. And then I did what I always do. I took it, ran with it, and made it into something actors can actually use. And here's something I want you to think about before we dive in. This core work applies directly to character building too. How would your character motivate themselves to change their behavior? How do you motivate yourself to hit the behavior of the character you're portraying? While you're working on making a better life for yourself, you're also making yourself...
info_outline
Episode 382: Professionally vs Personally
Acting Business Boot Camp
There's a scene in You've Got Mail where Tom Hanks tells Meg Ryan not to take something personally. It's just business. And she stops him cold. The business is her life. Of course it's personal. I think about that scene a lot. Because she's right. And also, she's stuck. Here's the shift I want you to make. Stop taking things personally. Start taking them professionally. Those sound similar. They are not. Why Actors Take Everything Personally Our instrument is us. That's the whole thing. A graphic designer can move a logo and it's fine. But when someone tells an actor to be warmer, edgier,...
info_outline
Episode 381: Future Self Work For A Powerful Career
Acting Business Boot Camp
Close your eyes for a second. It's December 2026. The year is almost over. And there's a version of you standing there, the actor you've been working toward all year. How are they carrying themselves? How do they walk into a room? How do they talk about their career? That version of you is not a fantasy. They're a compass. Why Vague Futures Lead to Vague Choices Here's the thing I keep coming back to. If your future is fuzzy, your decisions are going to be fuzzy too. You'll take the class when it "fits." You'll do the outreach when you feel like it. You'll set the boundary when it's...
info_outlineSo today, we are going to talk about goals for the first quarter of 2024.
January through March 31st is the first quarter of the year.
We are setting 3 to 5 goals for the first quarter of 2024.
Now, the other thing is that if you do the full yearly goals, you could break that down a little bit, baby-stepping into that first quarter.
But what I want you to be thinking of is the first of the year through March 31st.
That's where I want your focus to be because it's a much more bite-sized piece to apply your goals to and your positive thoughts and actions towards.
I want to give you some questions to think about:
The first question is, with these goals that you have, where do you feel you are at in achieving them?
Talk about what you've done in the past and where that has brought you.
And then the next thing I want you to ask yourself is, looking at where you are at in achieving them and what you've done in the past, how has that made you feel?
What are your emotions around it?
If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you will change.
Now, the reason why I asked you where are you at in achieving them and how does that make you feel because if you did write something down, "I feel like I've let myself down, I feel like I just keep procrastinating, I feel like I'm such a loser…"
I want you right now to feel that pain. I want you to feel it.
I want you to get uncomfortable. I want you to recognize all of those things that you just said. Why? Not because I'm some masochist. No, but because I want to get you to change. If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you'll change.
And then I was hoping you could write this: Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
There's that wonderful phrase "Do something today that yourself in year from now will thank you for."
Use your mind to govern your brain.
Perfectionism leads to procrastination leads to paralysis.
Now, I have one more journal question for you:
How do you feel when you do not do what you said you were going to do?
When you have a thought, that thought leads to an emotion and then to an action. Which then goes back to reiterating that initial thought.
I want you now to make three columns.
I want you to put one of your goals in the first column.
So you're going to put down one of your goals.
And then, in the second column, I want you to write down some thoughts that support that goal.
So, if my goal is to be a working actor, the thought or thoughts that you would want to write in that second column are I am a successful working actor.
I go from success to success in my acting career.
I love myself, and I approve of myself.
So some good positive affirmations around that goal. Because your thoughts need to back up that goal.
What else needs to back up that goal? Your actions.
So, I want you to take a look at whatever that goal is, and I want you to think of one to three small actions that you can take towards that goal.
What's your goal?
What are the thoughts that support the goal?
What are the baby actions that you can take towards supporting that goal?
And that is the secret to success.
It's your thoughts, and your actions must back up what you want.
I want you to go back now and look at your goals, and I want you to put next to them, whether they are a habit goal or an achievement goal.
So let's say I want to take a vacation in 2024, a two-week vacation in 2024. You need to save up for that. That's an achievement goal.
But let's say you want to practice your voice five times a week for half an hour each one of those times. That is a habit goal.
So take a moment and review all the goals you have written down and write down if they are habits or achievement.
I want you to look at each one of your goals, and I want you to ask yourself, is it a goal that is actually achievable or attainable by the end of the quarter?
Or is it a quarter/year project?
It should make you just a little uncomfortable.
If you babystep your goals enough so that those baby steps are something that you eagerly put yourself forward to do that help you to move in that direction, that is something that is great.
Again, that is great because it builds self-esteem. It builds confidence.
Now, I want you to look at your goals and I want you to ask yourself questions about them.
What is my motive for making my first goal, second goal, third goal happen for me?
What will I get out of making it happen? What is my motive?
We do things because there is something in it for us. And it's okay to be selfish.
When you get to those times when you really do not feel like doing the action step for your goal, you can remind yourself what your motive is.
And that's when you can really start asking yourself. How bad do I want it?
I consider that question to be the secret ingredient.
I operate like this all the time because not every single day do I feel like doing things towards my goals.
But when I remind myself what my motive is, I remind myself how it's going to feel when I achieve it. Ooh, baby, that lights a fire under my ass.